Two days in Boston Part II

So here we are, back in Bean Town, though no one from New England actually calls it that. Just like nobody from Boston really talks like Cliff Clavin, but I digress… Before we had even thought about our Christmas plans, we had suggested to my brother-in-law, Ken that he and the kids come down  from Maine for a day or two during school vacation so we could take them into town for a good ol’ time. No worries though, I love the city.  Any excuse to go gallivanting is just fine with me! Ken and the kids had never been to the New England Aquarium so that needed to be rectified. We decided to spend the afternoon with the fishes and then have dinner at Faneuil Hall. We parked across from Durgin Park.

Outside of the aquarium there is a seal exhibit that you can check out without paying the entrance fee.  This is a “no money fun” activity that we participated in when our kids were little and we were completely broke. I think they were about ten years old before they realized that you could actually buy toys from the mall and not just look at them.

This time we were forking over the cash and taking it all in. It was the last day of school vacation so I thought that it might not be too crowded. I was wrong.

It was packed. You can see in the picture below that there is an auxiliary tent set up. The line for tickets switch-backed through the tent. It was probably an hour wait just to get in!

Thankfully, Jeff had purchased our tickets online ahead of time. This meant that we scooted through the mass of humanity right to the door. It was like having a Disney World Fastpass.  Hallelujah! The penguins were pleased to see us.

 

It was feeding time as we arrived. The caretakers had clip boards and were meticulously recording who ate what and when. Good thing I don’t work here. I couldn’t even keep up with the baby feeding/poop chart with my one child!

 

I have to confess that most of the pictures from the aquarium are not mine. They are from my talented daughter Meghan. Usually I’m ok with my iPhone pics, but side by side the difference was pretty pathetic. Case in point:

 

As a borderline obsessive Disney person, you know I had to assign the Nemo characters to all the sea creatures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The colors of the anemones and grasses were just stunning. One of the pictures in this group is actually mine and not Meghan’s. Can you spot which one?

 

 

 

 

 

Poor Salmon, no one gives them any love.

 

The Amazing Jellies is a permanent exhibit. They are miraculous!

 

 

 

I hadn’t been to the New England Aquarium for a number of years. I knew that they had done some refurbishments, but what I didn’t realize is that they removed the dolphin show. I’m assuming that it was a matter of animal rights concerns. I did some research but I couldn’t find any news articles on the decision, only a court case brought on by the Citizens to End Animal Suffering and Exploitation.  I won’t make any value judgements here, but what I can say is that the huge corrugated building is gone, leaving a beautiful open space with a gorgeous view of the Harbor.

 

 

 

If you are missing the old dolphin show, you can reminisce about it while watching this vintage New England Aquarium  commercial.

Curiously, the girls in both the New England Aquarium commercial and the Museum of Science ad are named Karen. Hmmm…

There is still a small pool area where they have some demonstrations. Here they were teaching us about seals…or sea lions. I guess I wasn’t paying too close attention.

 

 

We had one more exhibit to see, the  Shark and Ray Touch Tank. How cool is it to be able to touch a real live shark! What’s that you say, the wait is two hours? Um, nevermind.

My feeding chart was telling me that it was time to find some dinner. Let’s say a quick goodbye to our penguin friends.

 

We made our way across to Quincy Market. I have to say that being a pedestrian in Boston is sooo much more pleasant than it used to be now that you can just skip on over the Rose Kennedy Greenway. Worth every penny of the Twenty Two Billion Dollars the Big Dig cost us.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I hadn’t decided on a restaurant ahead of time (very unlike me, I know). I have no problem being a bossy britches with my immediate family, but not so much with the rest of the gang. I needed to be more democratic, which meant I picked somewhere that I thought looked good and then led them to believe that they had some choice in the matter. We ended up at Ned Devine’s Irish Pub.

This is right in  the Quincy Market Building. The space is an  immense loft with the original brick, paired with modern artistic lighting and imported Irish wood work.

 

 

 

 

I snapped a picture of Matt but it didn’t come out. How ’bout we use this one:

 

The food here was pretty darn good. The kids had a hummus and vegetable appetizer, but I feared I might lose a limb trying to photograph it, they were attacking it so hard. The grown ups shared a margherita pizza to start. This was tasty, but there was a bit of a problem. We found a piece of plastic in it. No big deal, the world is an imperfect place. They handled the situation well, comping the pizza and apologizing profusely.

The rest of the dinner went with out incident. I like to order an appetizer as my dinner instead of an entree. When I go out, I don’t want to fool around with a whole mess of vegetable and potato nonsense.

The portions were generous. Matt and Ezra both got the pulled pork sliders. Emma’s burger is looming in the background.

Meghan was crazy over her sandwich.

 

Jeff got a gorgeous piece of cod. You can’t call it Fish and Chips because he got sweet potato fries instead or traditional chips.

We opted out of dessert at Ned Devine’s because we were just blocks from Mike’s Pastry. You can’t be this close to the North End and not have a cannoli!

 

The North End  shops and restaurants were all decked out for Christmas. I have to remember  to come back here during the holidays and spend some more time soaking in the atmosphere.

 

This night we just took a quick run in to get our Italian confections. We double parked as Ken jumped in line at Mike’s. What we didn’t realize was that they don’t take credit. The poor guy waited for fifteen minutes before discovering this. He hopped out of line  and got some cash at the ATM and was graciously let back in the queue by another customer. Crisis averted.

 

 

Hanging out for two days in Boston was great fun, but what makes any travel adventure invaluable is the company of good friends- old or new. On these exploits, my friends just  happened to all be named Jones.